To our MHA executive residency students: Make yourself at home.

DMU’s MHA degree is designed for early- to mid-career working professionals who seek a graduate degree to progress in their profession. The program’s year-round calendar is based on three 12-week terms each year. Students earn 48 total credit hours in 20 courses – 45 academic course credit hours and three Field Based Learning credit hours.

The MHA program offers flexible enrollment, allowing students the freedom to complete their degree requirements in as little as two years and up to seven years. The academic courses are divided into three blocks: Block one includes seven courses and earns 19 credit hours; block two includes seven courses and earns 16 credit hours; and block three includes five courses and earns 10 credit hours. Students complete their course work online and also are required to participate in three on-campus executive residencies.

Students earn academic credit hours in the graded residencies. The first residency occurs at the beginning of the student’s course work, the second is at the end of block two course work, and the third is at the end of block three course work. In the residency that begins tomorrow and continues through Sunday, students will demonstrate their growing mastery of skills in the curriculum and will be challenged with increasingly diverse team and individual projects. They’ll also work one-on-one and in small learning communities with their academic advisors, interact with the MHA Advisory Committee and talk with five local health care leaders at a career-panel dinner Saturday evening.

The final residency sets up the student’s Field Based Learning (FBL), the final course in the program. Students complete the FBL in a single academic term following completion of all other block courses. The course, in which students earn three credit hours, is designed to replicate the management and leadership of a consulting assignment typical of a new graduate and includes actual project work and the supporting academic research in a blend of theory and practice.

The MHA faculty created the program’s on-campus executive residencies to satisfy accreditation requirements of the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), which already has granted the program eligibility approval. They created the residencies also in response to feedback from students, who wanted to feel more connected to the program and to the University.

Welcome to our MHA students on campus this week!

Keep picnic guests happy and healthy.

What’s the best way to take perishable foods to a picnic site or family get-together? Let’s begin by thinking about the ending: leftovers. Often we plan how to take food to a gathering safely, but after a long day of fun and sun, we don’t have a safe plan for getting the leftovers home, and it’s the leftovers that can pose a larger health risk of food-borne illness. The best advice is to plan enough food for the event so there will not be any left over.

Picnic basket or cooler? The USDA and food safety experts remind us that some foods can go in the picnic basket and don’t need to be kept in a cooler. These include fruits, vegetables, hard cheese, canned meat or fish, chips, bread, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, mustard and pickles.

When you know how much food needs to be kept cold, be sure to use an insulated cooler filled with enough ice or frozen gel packs to keep the food at 40 °F. If you don’t have a good kitchen thermometer, buy one and use it often. Be sure to pack food directly from the refrigerator or freezer into the cooler.

Image courtesy of Seattle King County Public Health

The danger zone temperatures – 40 °F and 140 °F
The dangerous bacteria grow and multiply rapidly in the food safety danger zone of 40 and 140 degrees °F. Food transported without ice and out of a cooler does not stay safe long. Finally, don’t put the cooler in the trunk; carry it inside the air-conditioned car. At the picnic, keep the cooler in the shade. Keep the lid closed and avoid repeated openings.

Here’s wishing you a safe and enjoyable picnic season.

There are compelling reasons, including health, fitness, social responsibility and economic development to change things about the way we eat. But despite the number of clamoring voices for change, the reality is the typical family is not likely to completely reinvent their diet or buying habits. There are ways to make incremental changes that are important to you.

Do you know who brought you this bounty?

I’m offering a calmer message, and that is to eat smarter, and one of the easiest ways to eat smarter is talk to the people who grow your food. Vegetarian or meat lover, exotic chef or locavore, the common ground we all share is that by knowing where our food comes from, we can make more informed choices.

First, some background: Who are the people who sell us most of the food we prepare at home? There are 36,000 supermarkets in the United States, and they employ an amazing 3.4 million workers. The typical supermarket has 38,718 products.

38,718 products. No wonder we’re confused about what to eat.

There is no easy way to track the origins of 38,000 products. There is a bit of hope and it comes from a USDA program called “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.” The government, with its love of acronyms, calls this “KYF2.” This program is designed to strengthen the connection between consumers and producers. By shopping at a farmers market, participating in a CSA, or buying direct from a farm gate, it gives you the beginning of understanding about what it takes to grow and raise the foods you like to eat.

For example, the KYF2 website shares these findings:

• The number of farmers markets has more than tripled in the past 15 years, and there are now more than 7,175 around the country;
• In 1986 there were two community supported agriculture operations, and today there are more than 4,000;
• There are farm-to-school programs in 48 states, totaling more than 2,200 and up from two in 1996;
• All 50 states in the U.S. have agricultural branding programs, such as “Jersey Fresh” or “Simply Kansas”;
• As governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack started one of the first food policy councils; today there are over 100 food policy councils;
• And the National Restaurant Association declared “locally sourced meats and seafood” and “locally grown produce” as the top two trends for 2011.

The AG Census reports that direct-to-retail and local foods sales conservatively added up to $8 billion in 2007. That is more than our total U.S. sales of cotton and rice. Direct and local sales have being a significant force in agriculture – and the KYF2 program is making it easier for us to find those farmers.

So this year, instead of reinventing your entire food life, make a small change, choose a food or group of foods and get to Know Your Farmer.

The temptation to take one home is hard to resist.

I’m talking about the little bundles of fluff that show up this time of year in garden centers, pet stores, feed stores and farm and home centers: baby chicks, baby ducks and baby rabbits.

Before I go on, let me tell you little about me and what I share in “Dose of DMU.” Food, food politics and food systems is my beat. I’ll be honest. It’s a topic that can be a little bit academic and policy wonkish, so as I write here, I look for the more human and personal perspectives to bring to the chat. I share with our students that food policy is health policy, and what better place to bring the two together than our blog space? And what does a cute baby chick, duck or bunny have to do with your family’s food system — or national food policy? There is a connection. Let me explain.

Day-old Chinese goslings hatched at Two Mile Ranch - too cute!

I want to talk you out of getting a fluffy baby chick for the wrong reasons — and see if I can talk you into getting one or two for the right reasons.

Adopting any pet is a commitment. The baby rabbit that lived in our family home grew up to live nearly nine years. Nine long, power-cord-chewing years! And now, as a poultry farmer in southern Iowa, I owan chickens and ducks that require daily care, feeding and protection from predators. Many animal rescue leagues and breeder groups strongly discourage the giving of these babies to unprepared owners. You may have heard of the national “Make Mine Chocolate” campaign to discourage the impulse purchase of baby rabbits as spring-time gifts.

For lots of reasons, I want you to think before you bring home the baby duckling or a cute, neon-dyed chick. After the fun of posing for Facebook photos, the I-have-to-care-for-this-everyday reality sets in.

But here is my twist: That reality can have a self-sufficient lining. If you like the idea of taking care of a pet, and your city ordinances allow it, consider raising backyard chickens. A backyard chicken or two not only provide entertainment but also a near-daily source of eggs. Once you taste and cook with fresh eggs, it’s very difficult to return to buying them at the store.

This 1918 poster promoted backyard poultry.

The idea of raising backyard chickens was promoted as a practice of patriotism leading up to World War I 100 years ago. It’s an idea that is becoming more mainstream again and provides rewards many times over.

So how about some Chicken and Egg 101? A backyard chicken is a hen, and a pullet is a hen less than a year old. If you’re not sure why a rooster won’t provide the family eggs…and why you don’t need a rooster for a hen to lay eggs…um, well, go ask your mother…or Google it. And don’t be embarrassed – I usually have to explain it several times a year. And sometimes to very smart Ph.D.-type people.

You can purchase chicks a few at a time from a local store or order them online in batches of 25 or so from a hatchery. Ordered this way, there are enough of them in the shipping box to keep each other warm, and they can amazingly survive a few days en route after hatching without food or water. Twenty-five chickens is too many for most beginners, and town councils often limit the number of chickens you can have in your backyard, but if you have a group of friends who want to share an order, ordering from a hatchery an easy way to get them.

Like any pet, a backyard chicken needs few things: a feeder; something to hold drinking water; shelter from predators, especially at night; and a perch to sleep on. Ideally, the chicken should be able to wander on grass in a protected space (an enclosed pen) and have shade. You can buy a chicken coop new or used, find plans to build one online, or put something together from odds and ends in your garage or shed. Chicken manure from a couple of chickens can easily be added to your compost pile.

What’s in it for you? Once your pullet begins laying, you can expect four to six eggs a week. Your laying hens will need daily care. It takes about the same time as waiting in line for a coffee from your favorite barista.

In the years to follow, each spring, your chickens will begin laying eggs with longer daylight and stop laying eggs in the fall with shorter daylight. You can encourage your chickens to lay year-round if you add supplemental light to their coop, or you can give the girls a break each year. Most years, I give the girls time off, and one of my early signs of spring is the first egg of the year.

Here’s a fun twist: A group of researchers at Cornell and the University of Hawaii are doing some interesting research that is a little out of this world but may have implications here in Iowa and throughout the rest of the country. The Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue & Simulation (HI-SEAS) is a 120-day Mars exploration analogue mission to take place in early 2013 on the Big Island of Hawaii. What this will be is a simulated space mission on Mars, and six researchers will simulate life in a Mars-spacecraft environment. Can you imagine four months living, cooking and eating in a 50-square-meter habitat?

Why are they studying this?

Astronauts have a wide selection of prepackaged meals available to eat during missions.  But quoting the researchers, “Humans eating a restricted diet over a period of months ultimately experience “menu fatigue,” also known as food monotony.”

Hmmm, sounds a little bit like some American homes, eating the same pre-packaged food week in – week out.

The researchers continue: “The major disadvantage of cooking on a space mission is the cost of resources required for food preparation and cleanup: equipment, power, water, and crew labor…Little is known about the break-even point in crew size, at which cooking would become more labor-efficient than eating instant foods out of individual packages.”

Wow, hello! This is the same issue we see in many American homes: the choice between cooking and eating “instant” food.

Researchers also know that over time, nasal passages can become blocked during prolonged space flight, and the loss of the sense of smell directly influences taste. In addition to their own research initiatives, these volunteer researchers are going to compare prepackaged space food with food cooked in the mock-up environment from shelf-stable ingredients for taste and convenience.

I am looking forward to seeing the outcome of this study. The researchers are looking to develop recipes and cooking strategies for future space travelers. This is one of those projects where the scientific exploration of space travel can have direct influence on hungry children at home. The potential for new ways for families to use shelf-stable ingredients in their homes could come to the rescue of both families who struggle with obesity and families who live in food deserts – those parts of the U.S. where fresh food is not easily accessible.

I cook, I farm, I teach.

I split my time between two worlds. In one, I’m an assistant professor here in the Des Moines University health care administration program. I also teach food policy courses in our master of public health program. This year, I am serving a year-long term as president of the Iowa Food Systems Council board of directors.

In my other world, I’m a small rancher.

My home, Two Mile Ranch, is halfway between Des Moines and Kansas City. Two Mile Ranch features a game bird habitat where we raise and release pheasants and ethically grow pasture-raised ducks, turkeys and chickens that are antibiotic-free.

I’ve done a number of things that led me to DMU five years ago. During my career I’ve been a special assistant to the president of a four-year college, the program director of a paramedic training program, vice president of a multi-million-dollar advertising agency, and president of my own consulting firm. I was co-founder of a nonprofit organization that worked with two Nobel Prize-nominated charities along with a select group of NGOs that were making a significant difference in the lives of people who were in need or at risk.

Working in 12 countries I’ve produced documentaries and was an early pioneer in producing Internet-based multimedia storytelling projects in the early 1990s. I launched my first commercial website for a client in 1994.

Along the way, some folks have had some nice things to say about my work. I’ve been recognized for my website design and content four times by USA Today. Twice I was picked as one of the Top 100 Producers by AV Video/Multimedia Producer magazine. The journalists over at the National Press Photographers Association honored me with a special citation for my work on a documentary titled “Behind the Viewfinder.”

On campus, some great research colleagues have allowed me to work with them on the topics of learning styles, evidence-based practice, and the role gender plays in health care leadership. Last year, the MHA students voted me “Student Choice Faculty of the Year.”

Which is all very nice, but I thought you should also know what those same PR gurus strongly encouraged me to leave out:

In high school, I used to do an impression of Chuck Barris from “The Gong Show.”

I once dislocated my shoulder skiing while trying to impress a woman. (She was not amused or impressed.)

I joined the Grand River Volunteer Fire Department and my first call was to my own out-of-control grass fire.

I can sing the lyrics to the theme from “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island.”

And this one time, at band camp, I almost…